Geoff and Jenn's Ireland '99: Day Six

We woke up at our home base in Howth to a bacon free breakfast which share with three nice Italian women. We headed off to City Centre (downtown Dublin) and was quickly once again ensnared in the one way maze of streets during our quest for the Tux shop to get measured for my tux for the wedding. After slipping the tux guy a few pounds for broadly claiming that I was just a 32” waist, Bryn tried to have the fellow explain to him how to tie a bow tie. Bryn’s respect for the tux shop experienced a sharp downfall after seeing how clueless the fellow was in knowing how to do it: and hence began the day’s Odyssey (Joyce’s Ulysses) to find the proper method of bow tying.

We then parked near Trinity and visited a good number of shops along the way. I bought a cool Celtic blanket and a Celtic cross pendant, Susan and Jenn looked at hats and fabric, and Bryn was tempted by fancy watches and continued his Odyssey for the elusive secret behind bow tying. We found a tigger bow tie, and eventually was able to find a dear old chap in a stuffy suit store to give Bryn just enough of the procedure for him to figure it out and train the rest of us.

We then headed off to the National Museum which had exhibits on the various ancient and semi-ancient artifacts from across Ireland. Luckily, we had the authoritative archaeologist, Susan Baldry, to give her own personal “interpretations”, including her specialty with phallic symbols. There was also a movie on how archaeologists dig through a site, which was especially enlightening. Watching Bryn squirm as the “archaeologist” scraped the dirt of off the bones and tossed huge shovel fulls of dirt blindly around was more entertainment than the actual movie (good thing Susan didn’t see it). Bryn also pointed out the mislabeling of the various knot display (he wanted to make sure I mentioned that in here).

After a lunch (Jenn liked the coleslaw in the sandwiches, I learned that stuffing is called stuffing [as opposed to dressing]), we headed over to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. The exhibit is very well done and you are left in awe as you enter the final room of the exhibit to see two pages from the Book. It’s awe and age was quite weighty. Afterwards, we left the Book of Kells to see the Trinity Old Library, another fascinating sight. It was a single long, imposing hall with 15 foot tall arches stretching down both sides, capped by another set of arches above it. In the small rooms marked by the arches housed the oldest books of Trinity, stored in the order in which they were received. The room spoke quite simply but still powerfully of a rich European history with its statliness.

*Ah so what... so I didn't see the sign!*

Outside, we then took a brief respite as I snapped off a shot of my fellow travelers from one of the greens inside Trinity college. (After spending several minutes positioning myself just right for the pictures, I looked down to see the “Stay of the Green” signs and desperately tried to make a prompt and subtle exit).

We moved on to more shopping and eventually made it to Bewley’s – one of Dublin’s best known restaurants and also the location of Mark and Tanya's rehearsal dinner. We waited for the wedding party in the soft couches of the James Joyce room while listening to the music of an excellent street performer echoing up to a second story room. When I went down to make my offerings and snap a shot, though, a rival performer had set up shop a block down and a discordant competition ensued.

*The next Bono*

*The Grand Crosbie-Mastin Party!*

We then had a absolutely scrumptious Rehearsal dinner (thank you Ursula and Patrick Crosbie!) followed by the entire group hanging out in the street outside two rival pubs listening to the cankerous roars emitting from both sides of the street whenever a goal was scored in the soccer match occurring that night (Ireland vs. Yugoslavia). We took it as a good sign that Ireland won 2-1. The night’s conversation evoked several ideas in me, which I have included for the curious (rich in Geoffspeak, it is likely not too intelligible to others :-).


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